The Apprehension of Christ
person; thy opinion is grounded scarce upon probability. 'God is merciful,' but not to such sinners as live in sins against reconciliation as thou dost, 1 Cor. 6:9. Therefore, when one hath but probability to ground opinion, and the other certain truth to ground faith, be so wise for our souls as to take the best and leave the other. If she had remembered his promise to raise himself out of the grave, she needed not to have doubted.
'They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' 'They have taken away.' She instanceth none. And when she had thus said, she turneth her back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. The angels hold their peace when Christ speaks, and it is their place so to do.
But she knew not that it was Jesus in respect of her passion. Her senses were held partly by the power of God, and partly by a kind of passion that was a cloud between her and Jesus, that she knew him not at that time.
The Apprehension of Christ What doth Jesus say to her?
'Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?' The first words that ever Christ spake after his resurrection to them he appeared to, is, 'Woman, why weepest thou?' It is a good question after Christ's resurrection. What cause of weeping when Christ is risen? Our sins are forgiven, because he, our head and surety, hath suffered death for us; and if Christ be risen again, why weep we? If we be brokenhearted, humbled sinners, that have interest in his death and resurrection, we have no cause to grieve. It is therefore a good question to them that believe, 'Why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?' They were questions, not for satisfaction to him—he knew it well enough—but to draw out her mind, and to draw out by
confession what God had hid in her heart, that he might comfort her afterwards.
'But she, supposing him to be the gardener, said, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me,' &c.
She had a misconceit of Christ, as if he had been the gardener.
Beloved, so it is with a sinner, especially in times of desolation of spirit and disconsolate condition. They present Christ to themselves as an enemy. She in passion thinks Christ the gardener. Do not many, when they be melancholy of body and troubled in mind, conceive of Christ as an austere judge, that will undoubtedly damn such wretches as they are, who present Christ to themselves in that fashion, that the Scripture doth not? Doth not he bid all that be weary and heavy laden come to him? Mat. 11:28. And yet they, out of passion, will present Christ to be an austere judge, that will take them at their disadvantage, observe all their ways, and will surely damn them.
It is a great violence that passion and opinion offers to truth, and to saving truth, and the hardest matter in the world for a distressed conscience to apprehend God aright, and to apprehend Christ aright.
Secure persons apprehend God under a false notion. They apprehend God as a God all of mercy, and Christ as if he were not a judge of the world; as if he observed them not, nor their sinful courses; and therefore they care not whether they serve him or no, Acts 17:31. And Satan presenteth Christ all of mercy, and Satan and their hearts meeting together, the mistake is dangerous. It is a great art of faith, and an excellent skill, to apprehend Christ suitable to our condition that we are in. When we be in any sin, then think him a judge; then think of Moses rather than of Christ; then think of Christ as one that will judge both quick and dead for their hard and wicked actions. But when we be humble and broken-hearted, and touched with sense of sin, present him as a sweet Saviour, inviting and alluring all to come to him: 'Come to me, all ye,' &c., Mat. 11:28; present him as a gentle shepherd; present him in all the sweet relations he names himself by